Foggy Shields
by Patricia de Lioncourt
Summary: Companion to Join Me or Die and Nine-Tenths.  When Sookie stumbles upon a mysterious, troubled man in Merlotte's, she is compelled to ease his mind.


A/N- Okay, I'll be straight up and honest about this… this is a companion/sequel one-shot to two others that I've already done. The previous two were entitled, "Join Me or… Die?" and "Nine-Tenths." As to what I'm going to be honest about… I have royally screwed up the timeline between the HP 'verse and the Sookie 'verse. So, I apologize, and one day, I'll go back and edit all of these to where they work out, but right now… not so much. This one is set somewhere either just before Deathly Hallows or at the very, very beginning of DH. As for the Sookie 'verse, it is set before the vampires come out of the coffin. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. It belongs to JK Rowling and WB. I also don't own The Southern Vampire Mysteries. Those belong to Charlaine Harris. This was written for fun, not profit.

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**Foggy Shields**

He was different than anybody Sookie had ever seen before in her entire life. And he certainly wasn't a native of Bon Temps. Having lived in the town her entire life, Sookie had seen just about every citizen of it pass through Merlotte's, so she was pretty confident in her assumption that she had never seen the greasy, black-haired man before. Her bright smile locked into place, and her ticket-pad and pen in hand, she strode right over to him, stopping just close enough so that she was sure that he saw her.

He sat right at the bar and usually that left him to whomever was tending that night, but… there was just something about this strange, shallow-skinned man that drew Sookie. After a few moments in which he still did not acknowledge her presence, she cleared her throat. Still, not even a twitch.

She stood there a bit longer, wondering if she should just make her way over to some of her other waiting customers. Finally, she cleared her throat, leaning just into his view. Blinking as if he had just woken up, he turned his gaze to her.

"Hello, and welcome to Merlotte's. What can I get you this evening?"

He arched a brow at her. "Whiskey."

Sookie blinked. His accent was distinctly British. Looks like she had been right about him being from out of town.

"Okay. Can I get you anything to eat with that?"

He grimaced. "No."

Something about him made Sookie want to reach out to him, lay a hand on his arm, and tell him that, whatever it was, it was all going to be okay. His every movement screamed some sort of anguish, the likes of which she had never seen. Usually, she did her best in public to block out the voices of the bar patrons' minds, for more reasons than one. After all, what gave her the right to peek into others' thoughts, just because she could? But this man, whoever he was, was in so much pain… maybe, just once…

She nodded at him, turning and giving his order to Sam, who eyed her for a moment, confused. She shook her head, turning her eyes back upon the British man. With a deep breath, she dropped her self-built shield, and tried with all her might to hear what thoughts circled his mind.

Snape, a name, his, was the first word she caught. But, past that… his mind was just as mysterious as he was. It was almost like he had his own mental shield, and it shimmered within her, fogging her own mind, letting loose only single words at a time—most of which made no sense on their own. She caught two other names: Voldemort and Dumbledore, both of which were thought was a great sadness behind them. And another name: Lily, and the pain that accompanied that one was enough to bring tears to Sookie's eyes. And, finally, wizard… that was a word he thought quite a bit.

Shaking herself, she pulled up all her defenses, having learned next to nothing, and turned to walk away. However, after a mere half a step, a hand lashed out, gently catching her wrist. Images flooded her mind. Flashes of green and red, cries of urgency and despair. And a deep resolution… Whatever it was that Snape was going through, he was sure he was the villain of his story… and that he was going to get what was coming to him.

Gasping, she turned, finding his black eyes on hers. Neither said anything as he released her, and Sookie sank onto the stool next to him.

"What are you?" he hissed.

She sucked in a breath, offended.

"I'm a who, not a what, thank you very much."

"Your name, and how did you learn Occlumency, muggle?"

"I don't know what you just called me, or what that Occlu-whatever is, but…"

His eyes were wide, and, as if she had given him some sort of unspoken permission, he reached across the short distance between the two of them and laid his hand atop hers. Another flood of images followed: an old man falling to his death from a high tower, a boy with a strange scar who screamed at him, a man who looked more like a snake than a man laughing and celebrating. When the images stopped, they were followed by more words: plans, mission, vampires, reveal, wizardry, magic, death, Lily.

Sookie jerked her hand free of his, and, in that next instant, everything she had seen made complete sense to her. Her eyes were sad, and she shook her head.

"You're a good man. You can't hide that from everybody."

All the fear, all the anguish, all the self-loathing, for a moment, vanished from Snape's face. He was a condemned man, and she had just given him his pardon. Standing, she thought he flashed her a grin before returning to his too-stern face.

"You never know what'll come," he muttered.

Sookie could only nod in agreement.

"Maybe, in the end, I won't be the monster of the story."

"You weren't to begin with."

This time, she did see his grin.

"You're a strange little telepath. I don't think that we'll meet again."

She shook her head. For all her mind-reading abilities, Sookie did not possess the power to see into the future. But, this time, she was confident in what was to come.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

He nodded toward the television hanging over the bar. Sookie's eyes flew to it for only a moment, and by the time her eyes were back to his stool, Snape was already gone. Sighing, she turned back to the TV, which was set on a local news channel.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the world, I stand here, one of my kind's many representatives," a too-pale woman was saying as on the screen.

And Sookie watched, alongside everyone else in Merlotte's that night, as she witnessed, for the second time that evening, something from another world. And, as everyone learned that night of the existence of another kind of being, Sookie had a feeling that Snape's mission here in Bon Temps was over.

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End Notes: Just a quick little ditty here. I hope it wasn't too pointless. I had someone, on one of my others in this little series, as to see one of the good guys meet someone from the Sookie 'verse, and thus this fic was born. I hope you enjoyed. Please review!


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